| Ninazu | |
|---|---|
God of the underworld, snakes and vegetation | |
| Major cult center | Enegi, originally alsoEshnunna |
| Symbol | snake |
| Genealogy | |
| Parents |
|
| Consort | Ningirida[1] |
| Children |
|
| Equivalents | |
| Eshnunnean | Tishpak |
Ninazu (Sumerian:𒀭𒎏𒀀𒋢; [DNIN.A.SU] "lord healer"[2]) was aMesopotamian god of theunderworld. He was also associated with snakes and vegetation, and with time acquired the character of a warrior god. He was frequently associated withEreshkigal, either as a son, husband, or simply a member of the same category of underworld deities.
His original cult centers wereEnegi andEshnunna, though in the later city he was gradually replaced by a similar god,Tishpak. Hiscult declined after theOld Babylonian period, though in the city ofUr, where it was introduced from Enegi, he retained a number of worshipers even after the fall of the last Mesopotamian empires, in the Achaemenid period.
According to Julia M. Asher-Greve, Ninazu was initially considered a "high-ranking local god", similar in rank toNingirsu.[3] His name hasSumerian origin and can be translated as "lord healer", though he was rarely associated withmedicine.[2] It is nonetheless agreed that he could be considered a healing deity.[4] He was regarded as the "king of thesnakes" and as such was invoked inincantations againstsnakebite.[5] Many of such texts were written inElamite andHurrian, rather than in Sumerian orAkkadian, even though they originated in Enegi.[6][7] He was also associated withvegetation andagriculture.[5]
It is possible that Ninazu was the oldest Sumerian god of the netherworld, and that he was only overshadowed byEreshkigal andNergal in later periods.[8] He was referred to as a "steward of the great earth", "great earth" being a euphemism for the underworld, or as "lord of the underworld", though he shared this epithet shared with many deities, including his sonNingishzida, Nergal,Nirah and the primordial deityEnmesharra.[9]
Ninazu was also regarded as a warrior deity, especially in Eshnunna.[10] He was both described and possibly depicted as armed with twomaces.[9] While no artistic representations of him have been identified with certainty,[11] his symbols mentioned in textual sources include snakes and the "snake-dragon"mushussu.[9] In one of the Early DynasticZame Hymns he is also compared to a black dog, known from later Mesopotamian incantations and compendiums of omens as a symbol of death.[12] "TheElam star", one of the Mesopotamian names of the planetMars, was associated with Ninazu inastronomical texts.[13]
Multiple traditions regarding Ninazu's parentage existed. He was regarded either as a son ofEreshkigal and a "Great Lord" (possibly to be identified withGugalanna, known from the god listAn = Anum and from the mythInanna's Descent to the Nether World), who might have been analogous to anonymous deities described as "mighty cow" and "untamable bull" attested as his parents elsewhere, ofEnlil andNinlil (an association originating in Eshnunna but present also in other sources, including the mythEnlil and Ninlil), or of Suen.[10] Frans Wiggermann assumes that the genealogies where Ereshkigal is listed as his mother represent the original tradition, and making Ninazu a son of Enlil and Ninlil was the result of absorption of some features of Nergal.[10] In anEarly Dynastic text fromShuruppak the god of Enegi, presumably Ninazu, is already referred to as "Nergal of Enegi".[12] The existence of a tradition in whichGula was Ninazu's mother, occasionally proposed in scholarship, should be considered baseless according toAndrew R. George.[14]
The godNinmada, called the "snake charmer ofAn," was consistently regarded as Ninazu's brother.[10] In the mythHow grain came to Sumer the brothers giftgrain andflax to mankind.[15] In the mythEnlil and Ninlil Ninazu's brothers are insteadNanna, Nergal andEnbilulu,[10] though he retains a connection with agriculture there nonetheless.[16]
In most sources the goddessNingirida is listed as Ninazu's wife (a relation first attested in theUr III period) but less commonly he could be the husband ofUkulla (normally the wife ofTishpak), and there are also instances where Ereshkigal is referred to as his wife rather than mother.[7] The children of Ninazu and Ningirida were the god Ningishzida and his two sisters, in a single incantation he is also addressed as the father of the healing goddessNintinugga.[7][1] The names of the two daughters associated with Ningishzida vary between sources, with the best attested being Amashilama, known from a myth about the death of this god.[1]
Ninazu has nosukkal (attendant deity) in the major god lists, but it is possible that theviper god Ippu (or Ipahum), later known as thesukkal of Ningishzida, originally was a courtier of his father instead.[7] According to Irene Sibbing-Plantholt, he might be one and the same as the vegetation godAbu best known from the mythEnki and Ninhursag.[17]
In the god listAn = Anum Ninazu appears in a sequence including Ereshkigal, Ningishzida, Tishpak,Inshushinak andIshtaran.[18] Based on their association in god lists and similar attributes, Wiggermann proposes that these gods shared a similar origin somewhere in the "trans-Tigridian" area on the border between Mesopotamian andElamite spheres of cultural influence.[19]
A single god list from the first millennium BCE equates Ninazu withNinurta, and his spouse Ningirida withGula.[20] An association between him and the latter goddess is also attested in theGula Hymn of Bulluṭsa-rabi,[20] composed at some point between 1400 BCE and 700 BCE (between theKassite andNeo-Babylonian period).[21] This text is considered anaretalogy[22] and it might reflect the development of a form ofhenotheism in late theological traditions.[23] As noted by Irene Sibbing-Plantholt, while it has been argued in the past that "this interpretation of Ninazu as a spouse of Gula goes back to the merge of Ninazu with Ninurta/Ningirsu (as son of Enlil and Ninlil), (...) this connection may also have been established through the link between (U)kulla(b), Ninazu’s spouse, and Gula."[20] Frans Wiggermann notes that the hymn presents an "aberrant," otherwise unknown, genealogy of Ninazu, calling him "offspring ofMami," which according to him might entirely depend on implicit identification with Ninurta in this context.[10] This god is addressed as "Mami's son" in theAnzû Myth (tablet II).[24]
A trilingual god list fromUgarit explains Ninazu asši-ru-hi (meaning unknown) in theHurrian column and possibly asil mutema (“god of death”) inUgaritic.[12]
Ninazu's primary cult center wasEnegi, a city located betweenUr andUruk.[25] The association is first attested in anEarly Dynastic document fromLagash.[10] His main temple in that city was Egidda, "sealed house" or "storehouse".[12] Offerings made to him in his cult center are mentioned in tablets fromPuzrish-Dagan.[26] Much like Ninazu himself, Enegi was associated with the underworld, and could be described as "pipe of Ereshkigal's quay" in literary texts in reference to a type of implement used infunerarylibations.[27] Thecults of Enegi were likely influenced byUruk, as in addition to Ninazu, typical Urukean deities like the messenger goddessNinshubur, the demigodGilgamesh and his motherNinsun were venerated in this city.[12]
A second cult center of Ninazu wasEshnunna, where his temple was the Esikil, "pure house".[12] Frans Wiggermann maintains that the Ninazu of Eshnunna was identical with the Ninazu of Enegi.[10] However, according to Irene Sibbing-Plantholt, it is uncertain if the latter was indeed identical, and thus a southern deity imported to a northern city, a different deity sharing the same name, or anepithet of a separate deity identical with the name of the god of Enegi.[28] Starting in theAkkadian period, Ninazu apparently competed with the godTishpak in Eshnunna, and ceased to be mentioned in documents from it altogether afterHammurabi's conquest.[12] It is usually presumed that the later had foreign origin, and he might have been introduced to this city as early as in the late fourth and early third millennium BCE.[28] While similar in character, Ninazu and Tishpak were not fully conflated, and unlikeInanna and Ishtar orEnki and Ea were kept apart in god lists.[12][29]
In Lagash, Ninazu was one of the deities who were part of the official pantheon during the reign ofUrukagina,[30] but he is otherwise not attested there in the Early Dynastic period,[31] with the exception of some theophoric personal names.[32] LaterGudea built a temple dedicated to him, but its precise location and ceremonial name are not known.[33]
From Enegi, Ninazu was also introduced to Ur, where his cult survived until late periods.[12] A temple dedicated to him in this city was also named Egidda,[30] and it has been proposed that it might have been where the center of his cult was relocated after the decline of Enegi suggested by its absence from records from the first millennium BCE.[34] Other cities from which offerings to him are attested areNippur,Umma[16] andAdab.[35] In the first millennium BCE, he was also venerated inAssur.[12] Furthermore, the name of a temple dedicated to him, Ekurmaḫ, "house, exalted mountain," is known from theEpic ofAnzû, but its location is unknown.[36]
The last available evidence for cult of Ninazu are theophoric personal names from Ur invoking him, present in sources from the period ofPersian rule over Mesopotamia.[30][16] According toPaul-Alain Beaulieu, he must have remained a relatively popular deity in Ur.[37] A peculiarity associated with the late worship of Ninazu in Ur is the use of both the basic form of his name and itsEmesal equivalent, Umunazu, in personal names, with the latter being slightly more common - 25 names with Ninazu and 30 with Umunazu are presently known.[38] It is possible that this situation was influenced by the role played bylamentation priests, who traditionally memorized texts written in the Emesal dialect, in the survival of Ninazu's cult.[39] Other underworld deities, like his son Ningishzida, the deified snake Nirah and the incantation goddessNingirima, also retained a degree of popularity, likely due to being envisioned as members of Ninazu's court.[40]